A semi-regularly updated blog detailing interesting activities in the life of the Ellisons. And maybe some goofy stuff too.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Memorial Day in Michigan

Typically, Memorial Day weather in Michigan is nothing to write home about. If my memory serves me correctly, the last four Memorial Days were either cloudy or rainy and not particularly warm. However, this Memorial Day seemed to really kick off the summer.

This year, I took the family to the in-laws for the weekend to help out with some projects and to relax (and to play some golf). I'm not one to check the weather forecast on a regular basis, but it might have helped this past weekend. My father-in-law and I proceeded to move a small tree in the blazing sun, which caused my back to turn a nice shade of red. I guess it would have helped had I put on sunscreen, but I didn't think that we would be out in the sun for so long. Taking a break from moving flora around the yard, we decided that we needed to rip out the toilet on the first floor. Needless to say, that turned into a fun fun adventure of PVC pipe, which ended with the toilet back in its original spot and working perfectly, much to our relief. The other major project was installing the three air conditioners in my in-law's house. Two of them were not too bad, but the third was a gigantic beast which took the both of us to carry and install. The rest of our time was filled with smaller chores of cleaning and getting ready for Monday's yearly grilling of burgers and tube steak (hot dogs). Speaking of which, Monday was the original topic of this post, so I guess I'd talk about it.

Well, Monday was the hottest day of the extended weekend. Fortunately, we hadn't planned to do much except to grill and enjoy the company. This year, it was decided to have the picnic inside the large garage due to the heat, which happened to hit the mid-90s. My father-in-law and I set up a couple of fans and we had the garage door shut and it was pretty comfortable in there. Well, the party had started and we had been eating for about 25 minutes or so when the power went out. My father-in-law thought one of the breakers had been tripped, so he checked his electrical box. However, to our dismay, the electricity was out for a wide area of homes. This forced most of us into the house which had been pretty cool thanks to the air conditioners, but it did dampen the mood a bit. Once my father-in-law and I got his generator up and running, we had one air conditioner and the refrigerator working.

As I stated earlier, this Memorial Day really seemed to kick off summer, and the events of the weekend confirmed just that.